Rafael Nadal and
Carlos Alcaraz will square off for the 3rd time in their careers later today and Nadal sees the younger Spaniard as the favourite.
The first time they played was last year in Madrid and Nadal was able to win that match without any issues. The 2nd time they played was in Indian Wells recently and it was a brilliant match with Nadal coming out on top once more. Now, the 3rd time will be in Madrid once again and speaking on the matchup, Nadal said:
I think that today, he is better than me and he has a good dynamic, a good momentum. I
think I am a very realistic person, and that doesn’t make me not
believe that I can win, but today I think that Alcaraz is in a better
physical state of mind, and is more fit. I came here (to Madrid) without
playing. He’s younger, so he has that extra energy.”
Nadal is not worried if he ends up losing the match as Madrid comes 2nd to the French Open in Rafa's mind. He underlined it once more by explaining that all of this is just to get ready for Paris:
"At the end the most important, is not whoever is better in that
sense. For him (Alcaraz), yes, the momentum of keeping on winning, but
for me, at the end of the day, it is who is going to be better in three
weeks’ time, and that’s my goal. Unfortunately
that’s my reality right now, and that’s the goals that I have, the
goals that I set for myself, because I always said I never take
tournaments like Madrid, Rome as preparation to other tournaments
because they are very important tournaments to me.”